Church ringers suffer spate of panic attacks

The art of bell ringing may have a gentle image but a condition identified as "ringing vertigo" is causing campanologists to give up their hobby.

Ringers are suffering panic attacks, fearing the bells will fall on their heads or they are going to be strangled by the ropes.

Some have had to stop taking part in what they call "the exercise" after years of ringing and suffer anxiety upon hearing the tolling of a bell or catching sight of a church tower.

Light was shone on the phenomenon when a keen campanologist called Julie Mottershead described her experiences in a letter to The Ringing World, the journal of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.

She explained: "I found that over a few sessions I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable ... and then suddenly I could not ring at all - it was as if the world was caving in around me."

There followed a flurry of letters from some of Britain's 40,000 ringers who reported that they had had similar experiences.

One correspondent, Fred Miers, said after a severe "attack" he was unable to do anything for a week, apart from lie in bed with his eyes closed.

Robert Lewis, the editor of The Ringing World, said the phenomenon was not new - indeed John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, stopped ringing because he feared the bells were going to fall on his head.

But Mr Lewis said as far as he knew the condition had not been properly discussed before, perhaps because the sufferers feared they might be ridiculed.

"Now it has been publicised it's amazing how many people have come forward," he said. "It affects people in different ways, some think the bells are going to fall on their heads and others that they are going to have a heart attack or pass out.

"For some people there maybe an element of claustrophobia because towers are often very enclosed spaces and are sometimes difficult to get in and out of. Other towers sway perceptively when the bells are ringing - it can be a bit like standing on the deck of a ship."

"They are acutely aware that others are depending on them to get it right at every blow and this can impose both physical and mental strain. So there might also be an element of stage fright involved, but it is strange that people can ring happily for years then suddenly start to suffer from it. And it can disappear just as quickly."

Rosemary Bennett, 49, a mother of two from Bournemouth, Dorset, had been ringing for six years when she had a terrible experience of "ringing vertigo" in which she thought she was going to die.

"I experienced a flash of light causing me to feel very lightheaded," she said. "I suffered palpitations and worst of all an uncontrollable trembling of both hands and feet and slight numbness of the arms. I felt I was either going to have a heart attack or a stroke; I really thought I was going to die there and then."

She got through the session but the same thing happened again. Anti-anxiety drugs and classes failed to work. "Eventually after repeated bouts I had no option but to stop ringing."

The sound of bells now makes her feel light-headed. "It doesn't go away and I just can't get over it," she said.